The Pathfinder Project (36 page)

“Yes, ma’am… just call if you
need us,” one of them said as both men left the room.

“I’m all right, really,” Warren
insisted, a little too heatedly for her taste. She reached over to activate a
portable tape recorder and set it on the table next to her. Patrick looked at
her a bit defiantly. “Are you going to do some more MRIs and X-Rays, or do I
get a day off?”

“I know the Mirzion supplements
we’ve issued have stopped most of the hallucinations people have been having,”
she said, completely ignoring his sarcasm. “How about
your
dreams – have
they stopped also?”

“Most of them,” he replied.
“The nightmares, at least.”

She sat quietly, unsure of what
to say next. “Patrick, what your people did…”.

“What my people did was
wrong
,”
he said. “I know that now, but I wasn’t privy to a whole lot of the ‘master
plan’ during my time on Earth. And if I had known that nuclear war was the end
game, I sincerely might have tried to do something about it. That’s what no one
on this ship can possibly understand unless they’ve lived in the Brotherhood
and experienced it for themselves. Some of my people have some very sinister
ideas about our society and its right to control Earth, Doctor.
Others
don’t.”

“Why don’t those others
protest?”

“My people speak with a unified
voice,” he replied, looking down at the floor. “Both you and the Captain know
at least part of my secret now, but you haven’t seen our system actually
function. The Triumvirate
wants
the human clones to feel and experience
emotion… they monitor it very carefully, studying and processing it as raw
data. We are evaluated regularly as we mature and taught to reject the feelings
that don’t suit the Triumvirate’s purposes. What you call love, happiness, and
compassion are simply emotional states that it can use to tempt us. Then we
gradually learn how to use those emotions as tools to ensnare other people holding
key positions.”

 “You still could have voiced
your opinion,” the Doctor insisted. “As could others.”

“No,” he said, shaking his
head. “Like I said, you haven’t
seen
the process, Dr. Simmons.” He
looked at the ceiling and his eyes filled with tears. “Many of us have tried to
object to our tasks and assignments, even discussed it with each other. I’ve
had conversations with fellow Brotherhood members – almost all of whom at some
point took a moment to voice dissent or even simple doubts about our plans to
infiltrate other nations so that we could extort or simply
take
from
them. After speaking to those who disagreed I’ve literally seen them met by
soldiers and taken away to be executed… the Triumvirate eavesdrops on
everything. The
only
reason that I survived was due to my ‘top of the
class’ ranking. They knew I was highly skilled, and that persistent efforts to
manipulate my emotions would eventually pay off. I’m telling you, the
Triumvirate observes the emotional process in its clones, studies it, and then
works to shut it down in the same way you would when you turn off a faucet because
you’ve got enough water in your sink.”

“That sounds very frightening,
Patrick. You’re describing a complete lack of individual freedom and no
personal rights.” She studied his expression carefully. “You’ve been
preconditioned to serve the Brotherhood.”

“We
look
like humans, we
are
humans, but we aren’t allowed to
be
humans,” he said, and
this time the tears came unchecked. He leaned forward in his chair, head in
hands and sobbed uncontrollably for a moment while the Doctor patiently waited.

“That’s the part right there
that your Triumvirate doesn’t understand yet,” she said. “The need for a human
being to express emotion… even if it’s just to let the emotional baggage go to
keep it from bottling up inside. And it scares me, because if your leaders ever
figure out the part of the human equation they currently lack – that which
makes us fully human – they will almost certainly discover that they have as
little in common with you as they do with my people.”

“I have met all three of them.
The Triumvirate believes itself to be infallible,” he told her, wiping tears
from his eyes. “I can’t imagine what the reaction was for the people on that
warship who were out-maneuvered and out-fought by your Captain, the
Pathfinder
and its crew.” He shook his head doubtfully. “Those who survived were very
likely executed for incompetence.”

“That kind of reaction is
probably very similar to the reaction a small child has when it first begins to
learn that there is danger in the world and that it can be hurt. I would think
that there would be denial, followed quickly by outrage and an emotional
reaction such as you describe.”

“Yes, you would think that
would be the case,” said Patrick, sniffing back tears and wiping his nose
carefully with a tissue. “But their lack of compassion… it’s so different.
They’ll simply file the information from that attack as flawed, study it, and
attempt to come up with a solution to solve the problem the next time similar
conditions present themselves.”

“Very efficient, almost
computer-like in fact,” commented Karen. “That’s why the Captain chose not to
stick around… we would eventually have been out-maneuvered.”

“Ah, but that’s the continuing
problem they face,” Patrick chuckled. “Beings who respond to emotions do not
react predictably. That’s been the toughest challenge the Triumvirate faces so
far, trying to anticipate how all of you will react when forcibly confronted.
The more of you there are, the
less
chance they have to predict the
outcomes of those encounters. That’s why they worked secretly, behind the
scenes, and attacked using stealth!”

“So the next logical move they
would likely choose…” This time it was she who looked down at the floor and had
to fight back tears, remembering those images they had all watched of the
nuclear fires burning on Earth’s surface.

“That’s right,” he said. “Their
choice was to
avoid
the confrontations and the unpredictability humanity
offers altogether. Move by stealth, move by surprise, and before Earth’s
nations even realized they were under attack… it’s all over and our dominance
is guaranteed. I’m not surprised at all that nuclear war moved to the top of
their priorities.”

 “Even if they don’t already, eventually
the Triumvirate will see those of you who don’t completely obey as enemies,
too.” Karen said softly. “And if people are led off and executed as you say, then
to a point they already
are
treating you as adversaries.”

“We know it, and we have no
choice but to obey. I was trained for several years and one of three separate
cloning lines that infiltrated your society. Our central command knew that you
were working on an enhanced Point-to-Point transit drive and they wanted to
know more about it. That was my primary mission – to penetrate your command
hierarchy and computer systems while stationed on the moon and capture the new
technology. Our own culture has advanced at a tremendous rate, driven by slave
labor capable of manufacturing heavy equipment like that warship. They wanted
to merge your new technology with our own.” He began crying again. “Tell your
Captain
not
to go back there… ever. You
can’t
stop them.”

“We can’t stop them
yet
,”
Karen corrected him. “The data you’ve helped me collect has been very useful,
and the Captain and I are very grateful for that.”

“I’m not a mindless,
pre-programmed soldier any longer,” he said, wiping his eyes again. “This time
the emotion isn’t shutting off…
none
of it. The remorse, the anguish of
having to sit by helplessly while this unfolded, the guilty knowledge that
that
man… my neighbor… He was right about who I am and what the legacy of my people
will become.”

“Do you think that you’re the
only ones who know how to kill?” she asked. “
Every
society,
every
new culture in the history of the human race has started out by conquering
other civilizations at one time or another,” she said. “Raid the castle and put
everyone to the sword… that’s how it works until you either mature as a
civilization and begin to learn that other peaceful options are possible or
someone conquers
you
.”

“Now that your nations on Earth
have fallen, our Triumvirate will do whatever it has to do to insure its own
permanent dominance,” Patrick stated firmly. “Whatever it takes.”

“Sooner or later at least one
of you will try and stop them,” she replied. “Then what? A new war begins…
against the new, cloned lines of humans that it worked to create? It puts
itself back at square one?” The thought seriously distressed her, and she
brushed back a wave of graying hair. “So far the superior society your culture
has tried to create has simply created a more efficient way of killing people
faster than the old methods of using swords, spears and arrows.”

“So why show
me
mercy?”
he asked. “There have to be a lot of people on this ship who wouldn’t lose a
minute of sleep if the Captain had me executed.”

“Three reasons,” decided Karen.
“First and foremost our culture does not execute living beings without first
determining whether they personally are guilty of a capital crime. So far we
have chosen to suspend the option for that trial because keeping you alive gives
us the option to explore reasons two and three.” She carefully scribbled some
quick notes on her legal pad. “The second reason is that this ‘Brotherhood’ and
its line of clones is virtually unknown to us, so we naturally need to learn as
much about you and your capabilities as possible. It’s quite probable that if
enough of us survived we may choose to someday launch a counterattack.”

“I hope you do,” he said.
“Murder is against God’s commandments… they… we… simply chose to ignore that
particular one. And the Triumvirate regularly chooses to ignore God
altogether.”

“Three,” she continued. “If
there is ever to be a chance for peace between our people and yours it must
begin with someone like you. I would imagine that you’re going to get a few
more bumps and bruises before this is over but your willingness to cooperate
and contribute positively to our efforts signals to the Captain that it’s worth
his while to offer you the chance to redeem yourself. I just hope that you
understand  that your access to the critical areas of this ship and its
resources must remain limited until we can absolutely guarantee that any
possibility of Brotherhood brainwashing has been completely purged from your
mind.”

“Your people and this ship
have
purged me,” he countered, actually smiling for the first time in a long while.
“The transceivers like the one found in my quarters can stay on permanently or 
upload and download data in quick bursts as other Brotherhood agents passed by
the moon aboard other space-going ships. The shorter transmissions, if
detected, are carefully encrypted and designed to appear as random static.
That
connection which kept me informed, up to date and obedient was terminated the
instant we left our home galaxy.” He shrugged. “A lifetime of training stuck
with me for a while, like the urge to sabotage the ship by building a bomb. But
once those hallucinations began they became so powerfully strong that I was
overwhelmed with the emotions that had previously been repressed, and it didn’t
take long before I realized my actions were now being driven by a feeling of
revenge instead of a preconditioned obligation to obey. That was when your
marines caught up to me, in the midst of my emotional confusion.”

“With emotional feelings you
have options,” she said, smiling back at him. “You can give in to them and
allow them to control your behavior…”

“Or
not
give in to
them…” he decided, looking elatedly at her.

Dr. Simmons carefully took a
few minutes to add to the notes she had been writing down as they talked.
“Eventually I’m going to have you begin sessions with my colleague on board,
Dr. Hagen,” she said. “He’s a trained psychiatrist, skilled in the psychology
of the human mind and he will be able to help you deal with those emotions that
continue to be triggered by things that you
cannot
go back and change. It
will take time, but you’ll learn to live with them.”

“Without my conscience telling
me that killing others is a bad idea and just having that feeling automatically
shunted to a part of my brain where I can’t feel it anymore?”

“Exactly like that,” she said.
“But we won’t schedule any sessions with him until I think you’re ready. Right
now you’re continually experiencing the full onslaught of all-out human emotion
and that is quite simply the best experience for you right now. You could have
killed Mr. Dandridge, or any of the others that attacked you, very easily but
you didn’t. You’ve put up with a great deal of harassment.”

“Because
I
chose not to
give in to strong emotion,” he said, smiling at her again. “Because I allowed
my conscience to decide the difference between right and wrong and restrained
myself.”

“Correct,” she said. “But I’m
glad you pasted that loudmouth at least one decent shot. You
do
have a
right to defend yourself when attacked, you know.”

“I know,” grinned Patrick,
pointing to some of the other cuts and bruises on his face. “I’ve been getting
lots of practice at that, lately.”

They both laughed for a moment.
“Humor is a very positive sign,” Karen said, carefully placing her pad and pen
on the table next to her. “I’ve been using my own judgment as to which parts of
our conversation the Captain and others need to hear about,” she continued. “
No
one
else but you on this ship can possibly understand what you’re going
through, so I’ll do my best to respect your right to privacy where possible.
But I’d like to warn you up front that it may not always
be
possible in
all of the situations that we will address. I want to save my people from
further attacks by yours as much as everybody else on this ship does.”